


Cast me gently into morning

by spyglass



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:06:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spyglass/pseuds/spyglass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ellie catches Zoey's interview on TV, she is prompted to go up to New Hampshire to see how her sister is really doing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cast me gently into morning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladybug218](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladybug218/gifts).



The moment Ellie watches the interview she knows.

It’s an accident that Ellie is watching the interview at all, since no one told her Zoey agreed to be interviewed – by _Diane Mathers_ of all people – but a familial breakdown in communication does tend to occur whenever her parents are this angry with each other. (Or, more accurately, whenever her mother is that angry with her father.)

She’s flipping channels one afternoon on a whim when suddenly she recognizes her sister’s voice.

The interview isn’t over before Ellie has a call in to the lab to rearrange her schedule for the week. Her research can wait. Her family can’t.

 

xxx

 

The house is quiet when she arrives -- quieter than it’s been in years. She barely recognizes it for all that she’s grown used to the secret service and increased security measures over the years. Because of the scores of agents shadowing the Bartlet women’s every move, the usual post-interview press frenzy is nonexistent and CJ has returned to the White House, leaving only her mother and Zoey in the house (and the aforementioned scores of agents). With Liz and her family nearby, there is only one noticeable absence. But that isn’t what Ellie is focused on. That isn’t the reason she dropped everything at the lab and came up to New Hampshire, just to see for herself.

Ellie is, first and foremost a scientist. It isn’t enough to know intuitively. She needs proof.

 

xxx

 

Zoey is resting in her room when Ellie arrives, her mother hanging close by and pretending to read an article in a three week old edition of the _New England Journal of Medicine_.

“Hi, Mom,” Ellie says when she finds her mother’s hiding spot. Although Ellie had let everyone know she was coming, the usually calm, vibrant woman who raised her has been replaced by someone far more subdued, rising slowly in greeting. They took a piece of Abbey Bartlet when they took her youngest, and they didn’t take care to return it when Zoey came home.

(When the hug Ellie receives lasts a few moments longer, is just a little tighter, she pretends not to notice.)

They avoid all mention of the Diane Mathers interview or Zoey, instead choosing to limit their conversation to the relatively safe topics of Ellie’s research, the article Abbey was reading in the _New England Journal of Medicine_ , and government shutdown. They spend the afternoon together rehashing these topics over and over again while Zoey rests in the next room; it’s company that if not completely comfortable, has the beginnings of something that resembles normal.

(And if she overhears her mother saying, “I’m sorry, Charlie, she’s resting right now. I can have her call you later today,” when the phone rings that one time, well, Ellie pretends not to notice that either.)

 

xxx

 

The first thing Ellie notices about this Zoey, the Zoey in the aftermath of the aftermath, is that she is still trying to prove something to everyone else.

 _”The help’s helped,”_ she said to Diane Mathers just days ago on national television, broadcasting her message to the rest of the country. _”I slept well last night,”_ she says to their mother.

Ellie doesn’t push the issue; she knows Zoey better than that. She bides her time, watching and waiting until the appropriate moment arrives.

What she isn’t expecting, though, is that moment won’t come until well after two in the morning on the second night of her visit.

 

xxx

 

At first, Ellie doesn’t know what wakes her. She rubs her eyes and searches for the clock on her nightstand, a digital clock her father had protested when she bought it for herself as a teenager. As the numbers flash _2:17_ at her, she hears the sound of footsteps at the other end of the hallway. These are not the steady, quiet footsteps of the secret service, but the uneven tread she recognizes instantly as Zoey’s.

She finds her sister in the den – what was once the playroom – lying on her side on the sofa with one arm tucked beneath her head. As a teenager, Liz used to lie in the exact same position while Ellie and Zoey played together on the floor in front of her.

“Can’t sleep?” Ellie asks.

Zoey shakes her head negatively in response. “His Girl Friday is on,” she answers, as though that is explanation enough.

“Good choice,” Ellie says, sitting down on the opposite end of the sofa by Zoey’s feet. “Mind if I join you?”

“No.”

It’s all they say to each other for the next hour, until Zoey finally drifts off to sleep beside her.

As Ellie switches off the TV, she thinks at least it’s a start.

 

xxx

 

It becomes a habit, meeting late at night over old movies, and a secret they keep from their mother.

Some nights sleep comes during the first movie, but others see them staying up until the sun rises. When they run out of options in the somewhat limited Bartlet family media library, Ellie makes a trip to the store to replenish their supply. The sleepless nights begin to take a toll on her, so she sneaks short naps while her mother is out running errands. One week becomes two, but Ellie counts the days by film titles and classic cinema stars.

“It’s harder to forget when I’m trying to fall asleep,” Zoey finally speaks up one night during the second week, as Ellie is about to put on the next movie.

“You could talk to somebody about that,” Ellie replies, instinctively knowing that her sister has resisted that one final perceived weakness when allowing herself to seek professional help. “Or I could talk to someone for you.”

Zoey shakes her head.

“I don’t think…” she begins hesitantly. “I don’t think I want to talk about that. Not yet.”

Ellie nods. She would say that she understands, but she can’t. Not really. Instead, she offers an encouraging smile, not for the first time envying her sister’s bravery. “You don’t have to say anything unless you want to,” she says. “But if you ever want to, I’m here.”

“I know.”

They don’t say anything more, and Ellie presses ‘play’ to start the next movie.

And tonight, when Zoey falls asleep on the sofa, Ellie falls asleep right beside her.


End file.
